TEAM

We are proud to introduce our experienced, talented team. We have backgrounds in strategy, commercialisation, finance and economics, venture capital, and public funding. We are scientists, too.

Lucie Burgess

Founder and Director

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Lucie has over 25 years of experience of leading strategy projects and teams focused on digital, data-driven and tech-enabled innovation. During her career she has delivered strategy, private and public investment, and partnerships, as a management consultant at Deloitte, United Business Media PLC (now Informa), the British Library, the University of Oxford, the Digital Catapult, and charity Diabetes UK. Lucie has also been a trusted advisor to the boards of several startups. Lucie holds master’s degrees in physics from the University of Oxford and computer science from Birkbeck, University of London. Lucie founded Helix Data Innovation in 2017 and plays an active leadership and consulting role in all of our projects. Lucie also provides pro-bono advice to early-stage startups as an R&D Fellow for impact-driven venture builder Zinc Ventures. 

Jona Shehu

Strategy and Research Consultant

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Jona has experience in media, tech, and academic research. She was a research associate for Imperial College Business School focused on entrepreneurship and organisational behaviour. Jona was previously co-founder and product manager for Sozo Connect, a platform for photographers and film directors, and has been an international project manager for a live events production company based in Milan. Jona holds a master’s degree in economics and social sciences and a bachelor's degree in economics and management from Bocconi University, Italy. She delivers hands-on for Helix Data Innovation’s projects and also takes the lead on project management.

Lesley Soden

Principal Consultant

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Lesley Soden has over 25 years of healthcare management experience, holding leadership roles at the cutting edge of strategy, business developmental and organisational transformation of mental health, community, primary care and acute sector health services. As Programme Director for Innovation at the Health Innovation Network, Lesley advised companies working within digital health, digital therapeutics, data-enabled technology, software and biotech including those on the Digital Health.London accelerator programmes.

Dr. Laoise M. Hook

Principal Consultant

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Laoise is a clinician and entrepreneur with a keen interest in how technology will transform the health system to meet the needs of all patients. She founded and sold her first startup in order to fund her medical training. Laoise spent ten years working as a doctor in the NHS, most recently as Clinical Fellow in Emergency Medicine, and has experience in acute medicine, surgery and psychiatry. She was Health Sciences Director for FitFile, a startup focused on real-world evidence for pharmaceutical clients. Laoise also supports her husband in his low-carbon maritime start-up. 

Keeren Flora

Communications Consultant

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Keeren is an experienced content writer and producer specialising in science storytelling, podcast production, and designing training content. She has delivered compelling science content and engagement for leading organisations including the BBC Academy and Centre for Process Innovation (CPI). She holds a master's degree in science communication from Imperial College London and a bachelor’s degree in biology from Queen Mary University of London. 

Paolo Missier

Advisor, Technical Director​

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Paolo is Professor of Big Data Analytics at Newcastle University and joint Head of the Scalable Computing Group. He is also a Fellow of the Alan Turing Institute, the UK’s national institute for data science. Paolo’s research interests span scientific workflows and provenance, health data science for personalised, preventive care (e.g. AI MULTIPLY, ADMISSION), algorithmic fairness, blockchain, and data and information quality. He has consulted for many major tech companies and was a research scientist for Telcordia in his early career. Paolo has a PhD in computer science from the University of Manchester.